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On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 06:45:58PM -0400, Paul Davis wrote:
> its not clear whether the arts have any forward trajectory at all, so

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> trying to identify a particular period or a particular outcome as

> "ahead", "backwards", etc. seems a little odd. is the american

> minimalism of the late 1960s onwards progress compared to baroque

> counterpoint? is wagner progress compared to perotin?

I agree. Art more or less explores the possibilities, the available

space, rather than going into any direction.
> to me the most obvious thing that has happened to "music" since the

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> mid-twentieth century is the fetishization of *sound* itself. adorno

> has quite a responsibility there, 

Good point. 
> .. we had

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> the jazz world, the world of carnatic music from india, african

> polyrhythmic music and many other traditions engaged in a continuation

> of the fine balance between chaos and control. we ended up with some

> absolutely awesome art, and it had very, very little to do with

> anything going on in the serious/academic world of "western art

> music", and very little to do with with fetishization of sound itself

> that seems to have been the hallmark of the western art music of the

> last 50-60 years.

If there is any continuation of a 'tradition' it is indeed to be found

in the areas you mention. Jazz of course is an extremely wide and diverse

world. Some of it has become 'art' music, so of it has gone off on

tangents that are as obscure (to me at least) as e.g. serialism.
> if i hear one more piece that wants me to marvel at

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> the *SHEER JUXTAPOSITION* of this versus that, i think i'm going to

> scream.

Next LAC, maybe ? I'd want to record that scream :-)
> thankfully, we've got a generation fo composers now who haven't even

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> read adorno, and feel free to draw their influences from an enormous,

> global selection. is this an eclectism that has "little power to

> survive", or a vibrant source of compost and nutrition for a field

> that would otherwise be on the verge of a monoculture die-off ?

It is certainly a source of nutrition, but not a paradigm with

its own foundations in the sense that e.g. baroque, romantic, jazz,

rock & roll are. It's more like just a state of affairs rather than

something that can survive on its own merits, that hundreds of years

later a music student can return to and add to his/her toolbox.
Ciao,
--

FA
There are three of them, and Alleline.
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